Anonymous wrote:It’s very expensive these days. Unless you want a fugazi toll brothers looking house made of plastic and vinyl and garbage, expect to pay at least $300 a square foot. Building with natural materials like real wood, wood or metal windows, slate / tin / copper roof, and nice real finishes has gotten astronomically expensive. There are builders that will build you the toll brothers / Mc-craftsman / Mc-modern farmhouse for less, but I personally would not want to throw 7 figures at that not including the lot — much better to renovate a well built house unless you truly have deep pockets.

+1. General contractor here. Don’t get why some people spend much energy and
resources to build a “builder grade” custom residence when purchasing an existing builder
grade is often the most practical, cost effective, less stressful experience. Not worth it
if you pay for a lot then cheapen the whole deal with an NDI, Evergreene, etc building.

We bought a tear down in Arlington five years ago, and we have several friends who did the same and I can tell you that the landscape now is different than it was back then.

We had a bridge loan at one point, and in addition to that we had to carry the mortgage on our old condo while the new place was being built. Also, we needed cash when we wanted to "upgrade" from the builder's package. And our custom builder, while generous, still had us pay "out of pocket" for a lot of things.

So, in addition to paying for the land (which was over $1M), the current condo, and the builder, we also had to put aside about $150k in cash for the upgrades.

I'm on my second, more modest almost tear down. The key, for us, was downsizing. We were moving from a $800,000 house with only $200,000 left on our mortgage. We took out a home equity line of credit and our a loan from our TSP. We could reasonably carry the interest payments and our mortgage. Bought a place for $220,000. My husband managed the whole project, created architectural drawing for the new house, hired an engineer to check on the sizing and roof trusses, and submitted it for permitting (actually a few times, because we wanted to expand the footprint, but needed a variance, and instead decided to build up). Used the HELOC and loan to hire a framer to remove most of the old house and frame out the new. Hired out plumbing, worked with an electrician to upgrade the panel and rewire, a different contractor for siding and windows, another for roofing, one for drywall, etc. My husband handled the entire interior finish work - flooring, painting, tiling, bathroom and kitchen installation. We got it done in a year. He mostly worked on in evenings and used up some vacation time from his real job. My daughter helped for one summer pretty full-time. I managed purchasing and choosing lighting, toilets, sinks, tiling, etc. with my husbands input. Love my house, love the neighborhood. We are all-in at $435,000. Used the equity to partially offset college costs, but the no mortgage payments help us as well. Buying the house was no different from any other purchase we've made on a house, except for that we could make an all cash offer, since we were just writing a check from our HELOC. That made it go a little faster.

It’s very expensive these days. Unless you want a fugazi toll brothers looking house made of plastic and vinyl and garbage, expect to pay at least $300 a square foot. Building with natural materials like real wood, wood or metal windows, slate / tin / copper roof, and nice real finishes has gotten astronomically expensive. There are builders that will build you the toll brothers / Mc-craftsman / Mc-modern farmhouse for less, but I personally would not want to throw 7 figures at that not including the lot — much better to renovate a well built house unless you truly have deep pockets.

Anonymous wrote:There is a huge difference between a tear down and leaving one wall standing in regards to permitting and financing. A full gut renovation without changing the exterior structure is even easier in regards to permitting and design.

Depends on the town. Some town codes say if you increase the size by more than 50% you face many of the same requirements (e.g. new lateral, storm water mgmt, etc.)

Need a ton of $$. Deep pockets. With construction loan you will effectively be making two house payments - the place where you live and the interest on the construction loan draw.

Anonymous wrote:And unless you pay cash the bank with mortgage won’t want you to tear it down. Another hurdle

Not true. You can get a construction loan and that solves the problem. But yes, if you do not tell the bank you intend to tear the house down, that poses a problem.

Anonymous wrote:There is a huge difference between a tear down and leaving one wall standing in regards to permitting and financing. A full gut renovation without changing the exterior structure is even easier in regards to permitting and design.

Thanks. This is OP - assuming we left 1 wall standing or the foundation. Not a "true" tear down, but as close as possible.

There is a huge difference between a tear down and leaving one wall standing in regards to permitting and financing. A full gut renovation without changing the exterior structure is even easier in regards to permitting and design.

And unless you pay cash the bank with mortgage won’t want you to tear it down. Another hurdle

Anonymous wrote:
We bought a "tear-down", gut-renovated the main floor and redid the upper floor bathroom. Even though we were in competition with a builder to buy the house at one point, it was never our intention of razing the house and building new.

Me again. Our neighbors bought a perfectly decent house and decided to raze it and build new. It took 2 years.

We bought a "tear-down", gut-renovated the main floor and redid the upper floor bathroom. Even though we were in competition with a builder to buy the house at one point, it was never our intention of razing the house and building new.

Min 2 year process, likely longer if you don’t have lot in hand. Be prepared to invest significant time and keep a healthy checkbook. I can’t go into the other stuff you asked for.

Do a forum search

Seems like there are a lot of "tear downs" in the area. If you're not a builder, let me know your experiences. especially those who used construction loans... What was the process of finding the property, securing the appropriate loan, how much you put down, what was the purchase price, and lining up the contractors.